Set in Red River Valley, North Dakota, against the backdrop of the 2008 economic crisis, Louise Erdrich’s twenty-ninth book, The Mighty Red, is concerned with the world of farmland communities. The difficulties they confront, and their differences, are brought to life though vivid, despairing descriptions of the residents of the small town of Tabor, north of Fargo. Consisting of five parts and an epilogue, it centres on the impending wedding of an unlikely pair. Kismet Poe is a top student with Michif heritage who went through a goth phase and has hopes of attending college; Gary Geist is an all-American boy with dazzling white teeth set to work on his father’s farm. Kismet lives in a small house with peeling paint, slanted floorboards and beat-up furniture; Gary will inherit three thousand acres of land. On the surface, this is a story of love and spiritual yearning, but the union between Gary and Kismet is threatened by the guilt he feels about a fatal accident, the details of which are withheld until the final act. 

A succession of short chapters brings individual characters into focus. Kismet’s mother, Crystal, is frugal whereas her partner, Martin, longs for luxury. While she saves her hard-earned money from night shifts on the sugar beet farm, Martin indulges in silver cufflinks and Italian silk ties with money earned from